Mobile Marketing Being Used By 2nd Largest Coffee House In USA

I live the phrase “Practice while others are sleeping” and that was true last night or should I say early hours of this morning.

2nd Largest Coffee House Caribou Coffee

I was reading a few articles on one of my favourite sites mobile commerce daily and I can across a great article on the second largest coffee house in the USA Caribou Coffee.

If this isn’t an indication for businesses everywhere that mobile marketing is huge, and they should be looking at a mobile strategy as part of their marketing mix, I’m not sure what would be.

Alfredo Martel, who is the senior vice president of marketing and product management has been focusing on mobile marketing for most of last year and it’s playing a massive part of their marketing approach this year apparently. He said…

This new digital initiative is just one of many innovative projects that Caribou Coffee is committed to in 2013.

If you know a small local coffee house, you should point them to this article, have them read it and encourage them to have a mobile website, as many, nearly all, don’t.

Their Consumers Have Digital Needs

Caribou Coffee realised, it seems, some time ago after researching their customers that they needed a mobile Web site to meet consumer digital needs. So they launched a mobile site to cater for its customers. But they take it way further, and this is what I really like about these guys.

What is a global concern, and one that most people have been focusing on is calorie intake. This is the smart bit. What Caribou Coffee has included on their mobile website, is the nutritional information for all their beverages and food items. Nice. This is educational based marketing at it’s best. And they linked that into a medium that’s not only growing, but one their consumers are using heavily.

So the launch of their new mobile website is, in effect, giving their customers what they want!

Also Playing A Part Is SMS Text Message Promotions

However, they didn’t stop there.

If you’ve been reading any of my posts on mobile marketing, you’ve learnt a bit about the importance of SMS Text Message marketing. If anyone has a mobile phone, they receive SMS messages.

This chain of coffee houses included a SMS programme, with their launch as well, recognising that this is a fast moving, highly responsive, method of marketing. So much so, the article said they were introducing more mobile programmes, month in month out in 2013.

You Should Have A Mobile Website

If you’re a small coffee house, here in the UK, forget that Caribou Coffee, is the second largest in the states, put aside that they have 415 locations in 40 states and dismiss the fact that they started mobile marketing last year. The fact that they are doing digital marketing should scream at you, with the message, “I should be doing this to”.

There is no reason, whatsoever, why you can’t. It’s a relatively low-cost marketing initiative, and can be up and running in hours, yes hours!

You can build a mobile database in quick order, using mobile campaigns and that’s exactly what this coffee house has been doing since last autumn.

The promotion they did was a pretty good idea. It’s nothing new, but delivered via mobile, it was a smash hit.

Example of A Mobile Promotion

In December, they ran 20 Deals for 20 Days just before Christmas. The promotional offer was sent to those people who had opted in. Every day for 20 days these people would receive a special offer a day. Sweet.

The result of all this activity?

30% to 40% of their traffic now comes from mobile. How much do you think it cost them to have a mobile site? Mobile websites are cheap as chips. Compared to the amount of business it brings in. How much does it cost to send a text message?

Pennies!

What do you think the margins are for this chain on a single cup of coffee?

Don’t Leave Money on The Table By Not Going Mobile

Regardless whether you’re a coffee house or not, if you don’t have mobile as part of your marketing approach, you’re maximising on your poverty and leaving money on the table. Your customers want to use and are using mobile devices, to find what they want. Why aren’t you helping them to find you by having a mobile website?